


Five Feet Apart

by maeung



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: 3 am coffee chats, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, M/M, Slow Burn, fun times, probably other side relationships too, rom com sidekick johnny, side lumark and kunten, theyre going to have deep discussions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:49:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22014397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maeung/pseuds/maeung
Summary: Jaehyun just writes romance, he never realized it could happen to him.He definitely didn't expect it to come in the form of soft piano playing from the other side of his apartment walls.
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung
Comments: 11
Kudos: 107





	Five Feet Apart

**Author's Note:**

> and now i'm back! from outer space!  
> real note though: i really did miss writing lol

Jaehyun blinks. God he wishes he were asleep.

He stares at the ceiling above him, until the texture on it almost seems to move. Then he blinks again.

It’s still there. There’s a ringing in his ear that shows up every once in a while, it buries itself into his brain and stays there until he wants to claw his eyes out in frustration.

Jaehyun closes his eyes. Then opens them again. There’s no point in trying to go back to bed. He sighs, sitting up and blearily glancing at the clock. The red of the numbers sears into his eyes, causing his headache to worsen as  _ 4:02 AM _ blazes behind his eyelids. “Fuck,” Jaehyun mutters, trudging out of bed and stumbling to the stovetop, pulling out a kettle and filling it with water under the tap.

It’s dark in his apartment, and he jumps when the kettle screams, signalling that it’s ready. At least the shrill noise drowns out the ringing.

Muffled pounding on the wall and a drowsy voice yelling “shut up man, do you know what time it is?” answers Jaehyun and he scowls while pouring hot water into his tea cup. To answer his angry neighbors: yes, he does know what time it is, and he is also upset that he has to be awake for this.

However, the soft scent of chamomile wafts into his noise, sending Jaehyun into a state of calm. He wanders back over to his bed in the studio apartment, staring outside.

There is a small balcony with massive glass doors in front of it, allowing Jaehyun to stare out into the city. Sometimes Jaehyun likes to sit out there with a coffee in the morning, just thinking. The view was really what made this shitty apartment worth it, with its thin walls and tiny space. And maybe the close proximity to Jaehyun’s university and the privacy too.

Jaehyun shudders, thinking of the year prior when he lived on-campus. There are only so many times you can step on a weird liquid in the communal bathroom before you go insane. Or at least get your foot examined.

He sips his tea again. It’s really starting to work, Jaehyun thinks, as the ringing seemed muted and his eyes felt heavier and heavier.

He wakes up to the sound of knocking. Jaehyun yawns, the bright light hurting his eyes as it filters through the glass doors. The knocking persists and Jaehyun drags himself out of bed, his feet padding across the cold floor. He yanks the door open with a scowl.

“Good morning sunshine.”

Jaehyun’s frown deepens. “What are you doing here Johnny?” He grumbles.

Johnny grins. “Think I would miss Sunday brunch with the family?” He’s carrying a large brown paper bag. “I even went to Whole Foods. Mark’s bringing up the rest from the car.”

Jaehyun perks up. “Mark?”

“I’ll pretend to not be offended by that,” Johnny pushes past Jaehyun, setting the bag down on the counter and pulling out various groceries. Johnny makes himself right at home, washing fruit over Jaehyun’s sink. “The menu today is fruit salad, bacon and eggs, and chicken and waffles.”

“Sounds good,” Jaehyun says, leaning against the countertop.

“Mark decided that he’s going to try to fry the chicken,” Johnny pauses lightly, “so please take the batteries out of the smoke detector.”

Jaehyun sighs, “I’m on it.”

“After you brush your teeth. Your breath is kind of ass.”

“Fuck off.”

“I’m a failure.”

Jaehyun yanks open the glass doors, using a newspaper to wave the curling smoke out of his apartment.

“Mark, you’re not a failure—”

“It’s okay to be a failure,” Johnny coos, interrupting Jaehyun and resting a consoling hand on Mark’s back, who’s slumped over the kitchen counter, “as some famous dude said, ‘everyone must fail first to succeed.’ I think it was Lincoln.”

“Mark, you’re not a failure.” Jaehyun repeats, walking back over to Mark. “We’ll just have waffles instead, not chicken and waffles.” He looks fondly at the freshman who looks like he wants to die.

“Actually I think it might’ve been Elon Musk.” Johnny helpfully provides.

“I ruined brunch,” Mark frowns, “The first brunch we’re going to have since I got to college!”

“Eh, we already have years of Sunday family brunches before that. One piece of burnt chicken can’t kill that kind of tradition. Although we did go on that break last year when Jaehyun and I lived in the dorms, right?”

“Yeah, it’s a good think Mark decided to come to NCU too, or else they probably wouldn’t have happened again.”

“Thank you for reminding me of the significance of this moment that I have managed to destroy.” Mark says somberly.

“Why did you want to cook so badly anyways?” Johnny asks, handing Jaehyun a plate of waffles, sans chicken. “You usually just leave it to us.”

“Uh,” Mark suddenly flushes pink and doesn’t look at them. “No reason.”

“That means there’s a reason.”

“Tell us,” Johnny probes gleefully, “tell us!”

“No!”

“Tell us or we’ll finally tell Donghyuck you had a crush on him in third grade.”

“Fine! There’s a guy on my floor who’s really nice and cute and runs a food blog.” Mark blurts out.

Johnny practically squeals, “who! Tell us!”

“No! You won’t get this one out of me!”

“Wait a second,” Jaehyun says, “is the blog famous?”

“Uh,”

“I heard a rumor from Yuta that this famous food reviewing YouTuber was going to be in the freshman class of NCU.”

“Wait no—” Mark starts to say.

“You have a crush on Foodie Yukhei?” Jaehyun says, and smiles when Mark’s pink cheeks turn to maroon.

“I just think he’s cute!” Mark desperately tries to clarify.

“Cute enough to want to learn how to cook just for him?” Jaehyun teases.

Johnny triumphantly looks up from his phone, “he’s cute!” He declares, showing the screen to Jaehyun, who watches as a tall guy with an infectious smile rambles on about ramen. “Tell daddy everything.”

Mark shudders. “I hate when you call yourself that.”

“Dude no, it’s like completely nonsexual in this context. I’m simply pointing out the obvious that you are Jaehyun and I’s son.”

“I never agreed to this.” Jaehyun snorted.

“It’s true! Ever since Mark moved into the house between ours when we were 7, he has been our son.”

“So am I the mother then?” Jaehyun asks. Mark groans.

“Bruh, you can be whatever you want to be.”

“Well then,” Jaehyun turns to Mark, “tell your  _ daddies _ everything.”

“Fuck this shit.”

By the time Mark and Johnny leave, it’s nearly one o’clock and Jaehyun’s cheeks hurt from laughing too much. As he waves goodbye to them, he’s suddenly in a quiet apartment.

Jaehyun smiles, looking around the empty room. He loves his friends, but he really needs some time to himself to curl up and recharge. His eyes land on a black notebook and he pauses before grabbing it. Going over to his desk he digs around until he finds his favorite pen before going back to the kitchen and grabbing a mug, pouring some of the leftover coffee from their brunch into it.

The glass door squeaks as Jaehyun slides it open, and his bare feet get a shock against the concrete flooring of the balcony. He sets the cup down on the small glass table, the soft sounds of the cars and people below drowning out the slight screech when Jaehyun pulls the chair out and sits down. He sighs, sipping from his coffee and looks up.

There’s a man sitting on the balcony next to him. He’s not looking at him, and Jaehyun’s eyebrows move ever so slightly up in surprise.

The balcony five feet away had always been empty, ever since Jaehyun moved in at the beginning of the summer. However, it wasn’t out of the picture for someone to start occupying it now, considering that many people were moving into Jaehyun’s apartment complex in the past few weeks, including Jaehyun’s neighbors. Afterall, fall semester just started.

Jaehyun’s head tilts, looking at the stranger curiously. He has black hair that swept over his forehead, and Jaehyun can see his eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he stares at his laptop, keys clacking away. The laptop is covered in stickers, messy looking and chaotic, much like the man in front of him.

He is clearly still in pajamas, a large t-shirt with a cheesy robot on it threatening to slip off the male’s slender shoulders. His lips are pursed and under eye circles dark purple, but Jaehyun still senses a certain elegance from the man. Right as his eyes flit down to examine the man’s fleece bunny-printed pajama pants, the man looks up.

Jaehyun awkwardly smiles the smile that makes him look like a loaf of bread and looks away, cheeks pink. He doesn’t look up again until he hears the keys clacking again.

_ He’s a pretty loud typer.  _ Jaehyun thinks,  _ louder than the cars.  _ Jaehyun coughs awkwardly, picking up his pen and opening the notebook.

What should he write about? Jaehyun’s tongue peeps out of the corner of his mouth as he thinks, trying to let the atmosphere spur inspiration.

Thriller? Humor? Romance?

**_Clack-clack-clack._ **

Jaehyun looks up, frowning. It really is loud.

Romance maybe, Jaehyun hasn’t written a good love story in so long. And god, he really does love a good meet-cute.

_ Werewolves maybe. Set in a beach town? What if we add vampires and a whole supernatural world. Two people meet, one doesn’t know about the supernatural. _

He looks at the words he just wrote, examining the blue ink. Then he sighs, crossing it out. Way too cheesy, and will probably end up with him getting too caught up in world building and losing control of the story.

_ Soulmate-identifying marks? Everyone has a different one, making it difficult sometimes to find your soulmate. Tragic misunderstandings. Love square where everyone ends up with the wrong person. WILL NOT END HAPPILY. _

**_Clack-clack-clack._ **

Jaehyun’s eyebrows furrow, glancing up again. He crosses out the words. Seems unreasonable, angsty purely to just be angsty, as his creative writing professor would say. Jaehyun has always had a fond spot for writing tragedies, but he realizes that all angst has to have a reason for existing.

**_Clack-clack-clack._ **

Tragic romances however, that is an idea Jaehyun can follow. He lets his pen rest against his chin, ignoring the sounds from five feet away. He can revisit an idea he had briefly but never came to fruition.

If he remembers correctly, it came in an introductory psych class after the professor showed them a video on a rare disease. What was it called again? It’s when people can’t remember faces or something. Pro—propel—proso—

**_Clack-clack-clack._ **

Jaehyun’s eyes shoot up and narrow, glaring at his neighbor. He doesn’t even notice, continuing to type. Very loudly.

**_Clack-clack-clack._ **

Prosopagnosia!

_ Set up recurring event, maybe a non-linear timeline? Previous relationship between the two characters, one cannot recognize the other after the breakup. _

Jaehyun smiles, finally a good idea. Now he can get started.

**_Clack-clack-clack._ **

_ Every morning Kun scrambles through his apart— _

**_Clack-clack-clack._ **

_ his apartment like a tornado of chaos, frantically trying to gather everything he— _

**_Clack-clack-clack._ **

_ everything he needs for work, cursing his love— _

**_Clack-clack-clack._ **

“Jesus Christ do you have to type so loudly?” Jaehyun blurts out. The clacking stops and he immediately regrets opening his big fat mouth.

“Excuse me?” The man asks, surprised.

Jaehyun’s mouth continues being an idiot. “I’m trying to do something and you’re being really distracting.”

His neighbor’s eyebrows furrow, looking at Jaehyun weirdly. “I’m just typing? What’s wrong with that.”

“What’s wrong is that it sounds like you’re trying to murder your keyboard.” Shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up—

“What the fuck,” the man mutters. “I’m sorry that by trying to fulfill my computer science major requirements really ruins your mojo or something.”

“I’m just trying to get some peace and quiet so I can concentrate.”

The car honks loudly below. “Right.” They just stare at each other. “And my extremely loud typing is clearly very distracting.”

It’s at that moment that Jaehyun realizes that he is truly a dumbass. Scratch that, the dumbestass. “Uh, yes.”

The man tilts his head to the side, closing his laptop and folding his hands on top of it. His eyes narrow and Jaehyun gulps. “You know, some people might find you very rude for saying something like that.”

“Uh,” Jaehyun repeats, “also yes.”

“So you admit it?”

“I’m—I’m—fuck, I’m sorry.” Jaehyun stammers out, “you’re right, this is such a dick move of me to do. I just didn’t get a lot of sleep last night and I really needed some time alone after Johnny—”

“I know.”

“You know Johnny?” Jaehyun says, surprised.

“No, what?” The man says, “no I meant that the walls are thin so I know you didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, considering you decided to make tea at like 3 in the morning and woke me up.”

Jaehyun remembers the banging. “It was at 4.”

The man rolls his eyes, “oh thank god that makes it so much better.”

“Sorry,” Jaehyun says. There’s an awkward tension in the air, and Jaehyun really wishes he never stepped outside so he could have completely avoided this interaction. He doesn’t really like most interaction.

“So what are you concentrating on that made you snap at me?”

“Sorry!” Jaehyun pales. The man is truly terrifying, smirking at his terror. “Uh, I was trying to write.”

“Oh? Like a story?”

“I’m a creative writing major.”

“Over at NCU?”

“Yeah, I’m a sophomore.”

“What a coincidence. My name is Kim Doyoung, junior CS major at NCU.”

“Jung Jaehyun,” Jaehyun supplies back awkwardly. “Your neighbor.”

“An extremely friendly one, at that.” Doyoung smiles, “well, I guess I’ll leave and give you some peace and quiet away from my noisy fingers.” He stands up, picking up his laptop.

“No!” Jaehyun starts, but pauses when he sees Doyoung look at him weirdly. “I mean, you don’t have to leave just because I was being a dick. Sorry again.”

Doyoung smiles again, and it seems a bit more genuine. “It’s not because of you and your dickishness, it’s because I’m hungry and I’m going to go get lunch.”

“Oh, well, okay.” Jaehyun responds lamely, “bye.”

“Bye Jaehyun,” Doyoung says back and opens his own glass door.

Jaehyun groans, he’s so stupid. Well, at least he accepted the apology. A neighbor is not someone one wants as an enemy. He sighs, letting the city surroundings and sunlight wash away the residual embarrassment before picking up his pen again.

_ FUCK. _

After letting out his shame in ink, he starts to write.

_ “Morning, stranger. Wake up late again?” _

It’s only hours later when he’s rereading the beginning of his draft when he realizes that the love-interest has narrow shoulders and dark messy hair that covers his forehead.

As previous Jaehyun wrote:

“FUCK.”

**Author's Note:**

> please bare with me on the update schedule, after i get back from break its really going to depend on my workload throughout the semester


End file.
